of Blackwood's Magazi'if. apiicaring a few months before 

 Bewick's death, should siifTiee: 



Have we foigoltcn, in our liunied and imperfect enumera- 

 tion of wise worthies, — have we forgotten ''The Genius that 

 dwells on the bunks of the Tyne." the matchless, Inimitable 

 Bewick? No. His books lie in our parlour, dining-room, 

 drawincj-ioom. study-table, and are never out of place or 

 time. lla|jpy old man! The delight of childhood, man- 

 hood, decaying age ! — A moral in every tail-piece — a 

 sermon in every vignette. 



This acclaim came to Bewick not only because his 

 subjects had a homely honesty, but also, althouyh 

 not generally taken into account, because of the 

 brilliance and clarity with which they were printed. 

 Compared with the wood engravings of his prede- 

 cessors, his were tnore detailed and resonant in 

 black and white, and accordingly seemed miraculous 

 and unprecedented. He could engrave finer lines 

 and achieve better impressions in the press because 

 of improvements in technology which will be dis- 

 cussed later, but for a century the convincing qualities 

 of this new technique in combination with his sub- 

 ject matter led admirers to believe that he was an 

 artist of great stature. 



Later, more mature judgment has made it plain that 

 his contributions as a craftsman outrank his worth 

 as an artist. He was no Holbein, no Botticelli — it is 

 absurd to think of him in such terms — but he did 

 de\^clop a fresh method of handling wood engraving. 

 Because of this he represents a turning point in the 

 development of this medium which led to its rise as 

 the great popular vehicle for illustration in the 

 19th century. In his hands wood engraving under- 

 went a special transformation: it became a means 

 for rendering textures and tonal values. Earlier 

 work on wood could not do this; it could manage 

 only a rudimentary suggestion of tones. The re- 

 finements that followed, noticeable in the highly 

 finished products of the later 19th century, came as 

 a direct and natural consequence of Bewick's con- 

 tributions to the art. 



Linton^ and a few others object to the general 

 claim that Bewick was the reviver or founder of 

 modern wood engraving, not only because the art 

 was practiced earlier, if almost anonymously, and 

 had never really died out, but also because his bold 

 cuts had little in common with their technician's 

 concern with infinite manipulation of surface tones, 

 a feature of later work. But this nii.sscs the main 



* William Linton, The masters of wood engraving, London, 

 1889, p. 133. 



PAPKR 1 1 : WHY BEWICK SUCCEEDED 

 471274—59 13 



Figure I. W oijdi:l I iiM. I'ki m i i)i i;i . showing 

 method of cutting with the knife on the plank grain, 

 from Jean Papillon's Traite de la graiure en bois, 1766. 



point — that Bewick had taken the first actual steps 

 in the new direction. 



Unquestionably he ga\e the medium a new pur- 

 pose, even though it was not generally adopted until 

 after 1830. Through his pupils, his unrelenting in- 

 dustry, and his enormous influence he fathered a pic- 

 torial activity that brought a vastly increased quan- 

 titv of illustrations to the public. Periodical litera- 

 ture, spurred by accompanying pictures that could be 

 cheaply made, quickly printed, and dramatically 

 pointed, became a livelier force in education. Text- 



187 



